Writing tips

1. Read loads and loads and loads. You'll get to see how other authors create their characters and stories, and you can work out what you like and don't like in a story, and what excites and interests you. All very useful when you go and create your own!

2. Make lots of notes (and drawings too if you're artistic!). It's hard to just start writing a story without really knowing what you're going to say, so keep a notebook with you and every time you think of an idea, plot-twist, scene or character, jot it down. Good ideas can strike at the strangest times (ie. when you're in an H&M changing room, queuing for the loos at the cinema, on a long car journey or in a yawn-making lesson, so keep those notebooks handy, girls!)

3. Be incredibly nosy! Listen to conversations on buses and trains, ask lots of questions when you meet new people or visit new places, and go people-watching in cafés and shopping malls. I used to stick a pin in the tube map and then just go to that place to sit in a café and write - being somewhere different with new sounds, sights and smells really refreshes your brain!

4. If you get stuck (and ARGH, I know, it's horrible when that happens!) try taking a break to do something else. Swimming or dancing is good, and then when you come back you usually find your brain is working again! If not, try writing something else, or doing another creative thing like making cupcakes or customising a top, and go back to your original story when you feel ready.

5. When you come to write your story, you might find that events take you in a different direction than you'd expected and characters don't want to do what you had planned for them. This might seem like a disaster (after all that planning you did, too!), but I promise you, it is GOOD! It means the world of your story has really come alive - so just follow it and see where it takes you!

6. HAVE FUN!!!!! Mess about, experiment, screw things up and start again - and remember, no one has to read it unless you want them to so really let go and express yourself!!!